During the 1970s, when many California schools were being demolished and rebuilt for earthquake safety, Tech's main building was determined to be too historic to tear down.

[4] While Tech was closed for earthquake retrofitting in the 1970s, the school was displaced to 5714 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (formerly Grove Street).

In 1977 a group of students from a U.S. Government class at Tech launched a drive to create a California state holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

The students formed themselves into a group called "The Apollos" and lobbied for the holiday for four years; it was finally passed by the legislature and signed by the governor in 1981.

In 2008 two students at other Oakland high schools heard about the Apollos and made an award-winning short documentary film about their successful quest.

Paideia is an advanced History and English program founded by Mary Ann Wolfe, a political science and government teacher who worked at Oakland Tech for over thirty years.